“What we're looking at here is someone who's moving ahead in their lives, they're moving forward in their career,” he said. “It's a person who's entrepreneurial, thinking outside the box. They're generally young, they're either in a relationship now or are getting married sometime soon, and they're into activities like music, technology, exercise.”

[Wasik] Really, I reflected, he was describing no one so much as myself, whose own marriage was then only six weeks away and who was, at least at that moment, in possession of a gym membership.[2]

[2] Since cancelled.

[...] . . . This vehicle, it kind of shakes things up a little bit. I mean, look at the black one—I think it looks a little bit different from an Accord or Camry.” His tone implied severe understatement.

[Wasik] I looked at the black one. In point of fact, the vehicle shook nothing up. Its design was supremely generic, as if an Accord, a Camry, and every other sedan on the market had been meticulously averaged together. I could safely say that no one present at this concert hoped ever to have to buy this car. A word began to hover in my mind with respect to the Fusion Flash Concerts program, and that word was desperation.